The following list was submitted by the APconnections technical staff.
APconnections is a company that specializes in turn-key bandwidth control and intrusion prevention system (IPS) products.
1) Don’t degrade your network speed. Make sure your IPS system is not going to slow down your network. If you have a T1 or smaller sized network, chances are just about any tool you choose will not slow down your connection; however with links approaching 10 megabits and higher, it is worth investing in a tool whose throughput speeds can be quantified. Higher speeds generally will require a tool specifically designed and tested as an IPS device and rated for your link speed. Problems can arise if you buy a software add-on module for your web server. A stand-alone physical device specifically designed to prevent intrusion is likely your best option. A good IPS system is very CPU intensive, and lower-end routers, switches, and heavily utilized web servers generally do not have the extra CPU cycles to support an IPS system. For example, IT managers are aware that large web server sites must use multiple servers to handle large volumes of HTTPS pages, which are also CPU intensive. The same metrics will apply to an IPS system on a smaller scale, so make sure you are not underpowered.
2) Watch out for high license fees. Try to get a tool with a one-time cost and a small licensing fee. Many vendors sell their equipment below cost with the hopes of getting a monthly fee on per seat license. Yes, you should expect to pay a yearly support fee, but it should be a small fraction of the tool’s original cost.
3) More features is not necessarily better when it comes stopping intrusion from hackers. Remember, the biggest threat to your enterprise is a person that breaks into your internal systems and attains access to your customer data. A typical PC virus or DoS attack does not pose this type of threat. Although it may be counter-intuitive to your experience, it is a good idea to make sure you have a solid intrusion detection system before investing in things like virus prevention, web-filters and reporting. Yes, viruses are a pain and can bring down systems, but the damage will likely not compare in real cost to a hacker that steals your customer records.
4) Block first ask questions later. An intruder usually behaves oddly when compared to a normal visitor. Your intrusion detection device should block first and ask questions later. It is better to accidentally block a small number of friendlies than to let one hacker into your network. You will get feedback if legitimate visitors are locked out from your website, and it won’t take long to hear from them if your intrusion device is accidentally blocking a friendly visitor.
5) Don’t rely on manpower for detection. Let the device do the work. If you are relying on a reporting system and a human to make a final decision on what to block, you will get hacked. Your device must be automated and on the job 24/7. There is nothing wrong with an analyst doing the follow-up.
6) Use a white knight to expose your security risks. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal today on how anybody can hire a professional hacker. What they failed to mention is that you can also hire a white knight to test your armor and let you know if you have any weaknesses. Most weaknesses are common back doors in web servers that can easily be remedied once exposed by a white knight.
7) Use a combination of techniques. The only way to 100 percent secure your enterprise is to block all outside access, and with the silo mentality of a some security zealots you could end up with this TSA mentality solution if not careful. Given the reality that you must have a public portal for your customers, the next best thing to locking them out is a combination of white knight testing, plugging holes in web servers and entry points and a permanent watch dog intrusion prevention system – this should keep you safe from a hacker.
Some good intrusion prevention links:




















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Cloud Computing – Do You Have Enough Bandwidth? And a Few Other Things to Consider
December 10, 2011 — netequalizerThe following is a list of things to consider when using a cloud-computing model.
Bandwidth: Is your link fast enough to support cloud computing?
We get asked this question all the time: What is the best-practice standard for bandwidth allocation?
Well, the answer depends on what you are computing.
- First, there is the application itself. Is your application dynamically loading up modules every time you click on a new screen? If the application is designed correctly, it will be lightweight and come up quickly in your browser. Flash video screens certainly spruce up the experience, but I hate waiting for them. Make sure when you go to a cloud model that your application is adapted for limited bandwidth.
- Second, what type of transactions are you running? Are you running videos and large graphics or just data? Are you doing photo processing from Kodak? If so, you are not typical, and moving images up and down your link will be your constraining factor.
- Third, are you sharing general Internet access with your cloud link? In other words, is that guy on his lunch break watching a replay of royal wedding bloopers on YouTube interfering with your salesforce.com access?
The good news is (assuming you will be running a transactional cloud computing environment – e.g. accounting, sales database, basic email, attendance, medical records – without video clips or large data files), you most likely will not need additional Internet bandwidth. Obviously, we assume your business has reasonable Internet response times prior to transitioning to a cloud application.
Factoid: Typically, for a business in an urban area, we would expect about 10 megabits of bandwidth for every 100 employees. If you fall below this ratio, 10/100, you can still take advantage of cloud computing but you may need some form of QoS device to prevent the recreational or non-essential Internet access from interfering with your cloud applications. See our article on contention ratio for more information.
Security: Can you trust your data in the cloud?
For the most part, chances are your cloud partner will have much better resources to deal with security than your enterprise, as this should be a primary function of their business. They should have an economy of scale – whereas most companies view security as a cost and are always juggling those costs against profits, cloud-computing providers will view security as an asset and invest more heavily.
We addressed security in detail in our article how secure is the cloud, but here are some of the main points to consider:
1) Transit security: moving data to and from your cloud provider. How are you going to make sure this is secure?
2) Storage: handling of your data at your cloud provider, is it secure once it gets there from an outside hacker?
3) Inside job: this is often overlooked, but can be a huge security risk. Who has access to your data within the provider network?
Evaluating security when choosing your provider.
You would assume the cloud company, whether it be Apple or Google (Gmail, Google Calendar), uses some best practices to ensure security. My fear is that ultimately some major cloud provider will fail miserably just like banks and brokerage firms. Over time, one or more of them will become complacent. Here is my check list on what I would want in my trusted cloud computing partner:
1) Do they have redundancy in their facilities and their access?
2) Do they screen their employees for criminal records and drug usage?
3) Are they willing to let you, or a truly independent auditor, into their facility?
4) How often do they back-up data and how do they test recovery?
Big Brother is watching.
This is not so much a traditional security threat, but if you are using a free service you are likely going to agree, somewhere in their fine print, to expose some of your information for marketing purposes. Ever wonder how those targeted ads appear that are relevant to the content of the mail you are reading?
Link reliability.
What happens if your link goes down or your provider link goes down, how dependent are you? Make sure your business or application can handle unexpected downtime.
Editors note: unless otherwise stated, these tips assume you are using a third-party provider for resources applications and are not a large enterprise with a centralized service on your Internet. For example, using QuickBooks over the Internet would be considered a cloud application (and one that I use extensively in our business), however, centralizing Microsoft excel on a corporate server with thin terminal clients would not be cloud computing.
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